Compléter Cloze testVersion en ligne Cloze test interactivo para nivel B2 par Silvia Ciruela Martín 1 Professor Lydia Bourouiba the Massachusetts Institute Technology ( MIT ) used high - speed cameras to capture a cough projecting miniature specks far as six metres . She is critical the current safety guidance : " Having this false idea of safety at one to two metres - somehow drops will just fall to the ground at that distance - is not based on we have quantified , measured and visualised directly . " And a study carried out at hospitals in China , found traces of coronavirus in Covid - 19 wards and intensive care units , estimated four metres is a better safe distance . But for the US Centres for Disease Control , the role of aerosols in spreading the virus is " currently uncertain " . And what's still not established is whether any virus that spreads further two metres can still be infectious . Reference : Shukman , D . ( 2020 ) . Social distancing and coronavirus : The science behind the two - metre rule . BBC News .